Readme

Welcome! Welcome!

Thank you for participating in the APC Member Convening 2021 – Nurturing Solidarity, Achieving Transformation

A Readme¹ document is the “what-I-need-to-know” guide to orient and encourage participation. You will find here some useful links to navigate the event.

When?

From 15 to 19 November 2021
Check out the schedule

We have participants from more than 78 countries and we span across more than 11 time zones. We have tried our best to find a good working option.

Where?

Check out the meeting and coming together spaces.

Who?

APC members – organisations, collectives, individuals and their teams/boards
APC executive board
APC staff
Documentation team
Interpreters
Captioning service
Facilitation teams
Tech team
Interconnections and pop-up hosts
Party team

How will it work?

Nurturing Solidarity, Achieving Transformation is our yearly convening and the second to happen remotely. It is a collaborative learning event and a space to connect, discover and hope together.

To participate, as for any APC-hosted event, you need to register. With the registration you will be provided with credentials: a login (the email address you provide) and a password. This will give you access to all the spaces, platforms and tools for the convening.

This APC Member Convening is a registered participants only event. The email address you have provided in the registration is the one that identifies you as a registered participant. If for any reason you find yourself unable to use/access your registered email, please inform the APC tech support team immediately.

This is how we have organised the convening:

We convene for five days.
We have a programme that spans all time zones, starting at 3:00 UTC and ending at 22:00 UTC.
We open the room(s) 30 minutes before the start of the plenary/event. We start on time.
We have 7 plenaries – of 1 hour and 30 minutes each.
We have 4 regional interconnections: Asia/Pacific, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
We have 35 thematic interconnections, which are member-hosted events that are 60 or 90 minutes long.
We will have as many pop-ups as we want, for fun, skills sharing or just to relax and meet with one another.
We have actively weaved care into our plenaries and pop-ups:
We have a party to organise together.
We have the Best Futures Awards with winners to be chosen through a vote.

The theme

This year’s member convening continues the online conversation we began in 2020 with an eye to the future. Reconnecting members’ local and national realities with the larger APC member community and its shared global context addressed via the APC strategic plan, whose direction and content are informed by the member network and governed by the APC council, and which embodies how we thrive, change and generate changes globally as well locally.

Three overarching questions will lead and inform our five days together:

How have you, as members of the APC network, been able to thrive and adapt?
What are your insights for the future, and what are you looking towards in the future?
How can your strategy and insights for the future, as individuals, collectives and organisations, conflate with/inspire/guide the development (and growth?) of the APC network?

All seven plenaries and four regional interconnections are co-hosted by APC members and APC staff. All thematic interconnections are hosted by members and supported by APC staff.

Plenary themes

Day 1 - 15 November – Opening Plenary: APC Member Network, a Community of Communities

Day 2 – 16 November - 1^st Collective Future of the Network plenary: How we see us and what frames our changes

Day 3 – 17 November - 2^nd Collective Future of the Network plenary: How we keep us relevant

Day 4 – 18 November - 3^r^d Collective Future of the Network plenary: How to overcome uncertainty and practice possibility

Day 5 – 19 November Closing plenaries: How We Thrive: A celebration of APC members' stories, practices and projects of solidarity, Best Futures Awards (categories: Solidarity, Collaboration, Innovation, Creativity) and a party!

Best Futures Awards

The Best Futures Awards are recognition we share with one another. During five days you attend many sessions, speak and listen to many, many people. Discover new ways of thinking, doing, resisting, resting and creating changes.

We have thought of four main awards: Solidarity, Collaboration, Innovation and Creativity. Help us to choose the person, the collective or the organisation that you believe deserves one or more of them. When attending a plenary, an interconnections session or a pop-up, think about who you would like to acknowledge and share your thoughts with the Best Futures Awards committee. Also, if you would like to be part of the team of "talent scouts" to help us gather nominations, join us and let’s look around together.

And yes, the Best Futures Awards have prizes! Because happy competition makes our ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜 🖤 🤍 🤎 beat!

Interconnections

These are regional and/or thematic conversations on issues and projects, proposed by the APC member community. Members are the hosts and APC staff will support. These sessions are 60 to 90 minutes long, and will run in parallel and across time zones.

Pop-ups

These are shorter sessions between 30 and 60 minutes, on any topic. Members and staff can suggest what the pop-ups are about. They can be for care time, skills sharing, or just having fun and catching up with one another. They can be scheduled and promoted on the Convening Website and shared in Mattermost, or they can happen spontaneously, inspired by time and people.

Orientation sessions

On 11 and 12 November, five orientation sessions of 30 minutes each will take place for members and staff to learn about the convening, its spaces, platforms and tools. One session will be in French and one will be in Spanish.

For all members that are hosting interconnections or want to understand and know more about the BBB members servers, there will be an additional 15-minutes session to look at how to be a host on BBB.

Party

The party is a collaborative adventure lead by Shawna, Smitty and you. :) We are needing a co-hosting/facilitating team for the party. If you love APC parties, then help us make this one memorable. If you are interested in co-hosting or helping, reach out to Shawna and Smitty.

Meeting in the digital

In order to build a friendly space for all, plenary and interconnections sessions will have:

Co-host pairs (members/staff) that will facilitate. They will hold the space, keep an eye on the time, and keep an eye on the chat to bring your comments and suggestions into the main conversation.
Tech support will help you understand and access the various technical functions, from captioning to translation and more.
Documentation team: Two note-takers and one visual/graphic note-taker will document (only for plenaries).
Closed captioning: There is a super human following and typing everyone’s words so you can read along (only for plenaries).
Interpreters: There are more super humans interpreting into/from English, French and Spanish (only for plenaries).
Speakers will share their insights, thoughts, reflections, provocations.
Participants will share their insights, thoughts, reflections, provocations. They will give meaning to staying together and make it special.

Interconnections hosts can agree on how to document their sessions with participants. They can agree on and consent to recording, organise collaborative note taking, or just focus on the moment.

Tips for attending sessions (plenaries, interconnections, pop-ups)

Before entering the room, participants can choose their name, preferred pronouns, organisation and place. (It is your choice, choose freely!) BBB will not give you the possibility to change your name after entering the room.
You can have your video on or off, either way is fine.
Remember to mute when you are not talking.
Sit comfortably, bring your tea, coffee, water, pencil...
Close all other applications and tabs on your browser to boost connectivity and enjoy doing one thing. ;)
If you want to talk, you can raise your “HAND” or type into the chat, then follow the hosts/facilitators' indication. They will monitor and bring your voice and comments into the discussion.
If for some reason you are not able to use sound and want to send your input, you can send messages in the chat.
For breakouts rooms: We will use random groups and pairs or sometimes you will choose a group and then you will be assigned there. To enter the breakout room you must "agree to join”. The facilitator will send messages at half-time and three minutes before the end. You will be brought back to the plenary when the time comes automatically.

If you are interested and want to know more, watch the BBB tutorial or visit BigBlueButton guides in our meeting wiki.

Principles and practices of participation

APC is committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for any of its convenings, whether they happen online or physically, face-to-face or in hybrid settings.

Participating in the APC Member Convening 2021 implies acceptance of the Principles and Practice of Participation, the Code of Conduct and the Sexual Harassment Policy. They are also all on our [insert link bookstack].

We also follow Feminist Practices and Politics of Technology. Please read the extended version of the Feminist Principles of Participation, which inform APC’s Principles of Participation.

It is vital that discussions include and acknowledge a diversity of opinions and experiences, and that the community ensures that harassment of any kind is not tolerated.

We will take action in response to harassment related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion. APC does not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.

These are the framing principles we value and will apply in this convening:

Create a safe space for all participants.
Be respectful.
Be collaborative and participatory.
Recognise and value diversity.
Respect the privacy of participants.
Be aware of language diversity.
Handle disagreement constructively.
Embed politics and practices of self and collective care.

The Event Incident Team is composed by [insert name and emails]. Participants can reach them anytime by email or phone. Please contact any member of the Event Incident Team with any questions or concerns you may have throughout the duration of the convening. Complaints will be treated confidentially.

The APC Member Convening creates safe and confidential spaces based on the idea that “what is said here, stays here.” It involves intimate, personal exchanges, with recording only during certain exercises, which will be announced to participants. Recording will be switched off as well as on upon request. We do not plan to use direct quotes for the APC social media accounts. If you want to quote someone or to share images, always ask for express consent. This includes:

Documentation

Throughout the convening we will take different type of records:

Audio recordings for internal use (with the consent of all participants in the plenaries).
Text notes of plenaries, with the aim of writing up reports for internal use and to incorporate learning into our work and practices. [Insert name of documentation team] will do the documentation.
The graphic/visual recording of plenaries to capture ideas spontaneously and synthesise them through visual note taking. [Insert name of illustrator team] will do the illustrations.
Recording will be happening only in the plenaries and only for documentation purposes.
Recordings are stored securely on APC servers.

Active collective care

As part if this year's member convening, we want to open the space for members to share with one another some of their ways of active collective care. For that, we invite you to kick off the plenaries with 5-10 minutes of your favorite activity rooted in care. What you share can be anything that you found has supported your well-being on an individual or a collective level.

Plan your participation and time online. Do one thing! Take breaks, stretch!

External communications and outreach

In 2021 we are deliberately prioritising coming together to reconnect and collaborate in a safe and comfortable space, where we will be present and engaged for and with the network. In order to prioritise this, we will slow down our external actions and put all our energies into keeping our network connected, informed and engaged, by focusing on internal communication actions such as the Dish of the Day.

The only external communications output that will be produced is:

At the end of the meeting, the illustrations done by the graphic note takers will be used to illustrate a general member convening article that will be published on APC.org.

Staff and members are invited to write blog posts on their experiences during the member convening, focusing on substance and their personal experiences, keeping in mind the privacy and safety considerations of the other participants.

Platforms and tools

Informed by our policies, practices and feminist approach to technology, most of the platforms and tools we are using during the Member Convening are free/libre and open source (FLOSS) tools and tech platforms such as Mailman, CiviCRM, Mattermost, Bookstack, Drupal, dedicated etherpads, Nextcloud and OnlyOffice software for collaborative engagement.

B ig B lue B utton (BBB)

APC has invested in a self-hosted BigBlueButton (BBB) installation and worked throughout the year on its customisation to be able to host real-time video conferences using FLOSS. Thanks to the great human dedication of the APC tech team, we will be using a fresh and stand-alone installation of BBB to host the plenaries and provide a safe and easy interpretation and captioning system. We have done “stress tests” to verify its ability to function well when the number of participants increases and operations become more demanding, and we have come to the conclusion that BBB will offer a stable and viable platform for our plenaries. We have developed an alternative plan if numbers of participants increase drastically or if any unforeseen disruptions happen. We are happy that with the collective effort of many organisations as well as individuals investing in alternatives and autonomous infrastructures, we are able to run our convening securely, smoothly and comfortably on FLOSS platforms and tools.

If you would like to read more, look at the APC policy on use of free/libre and open source technology and the APC WRP Feminist Practices and Politics of Technology.

Mattermost and mailing list

For one-on-one, one-to-many or many-to-many communications during the convening we will be using our mailing list and Mattermost. We are doing this to provide multiple entry points to access/receive/share information in ways that respond to personal preferences and connectivity. Both tools/platforms can be used for real-time and asynchronous participation. Using Mattermost during the convening will give you the possibility to have instant chat and share direct messages (DMs) with people you would like to e-meet.

APC Member Convening event website

Programme, schedule, information, manuals on tools, and anything about the convening will be available on the Member Convening website. Visit, use and enjoy it and the scheduling tools we have added for you to create your own personal event experience.

Practices and politics of technology

APC prioriti s e s free/libre and open source software (FLOSS ) and open standards for the following reasons:

Driven by community needs
Sustainability
Security.

The APC community applies the principles of FLOSS in our work in the following ways, wherever possible:

Open document formats
Creating content using C reative Commons licen c es
Self-hosted online services
Supporting the FLOSS development community.

In addition, APC applies the core values of feminist practices and politics of technology:

Participatory/inclusive
Secure
Appropriate/sustainable technologies
Free/libre and open source software will be given priority, but only if the participants can sustain their use post-training
Transparent/open
Creative/strategic
Emphasising the role of women in technology
Emphasising women's control of technology
Fun!

Digital participation allowance

Moving from face-to-face events to online remote ones brings novelties, including finding sustainable, effective ways to support participation.

At the end of the convening, you will receive [insert amount] to help cover your connectivity expenses for the five days of the convening. Please note that if you or your team will need the allowance, you need to write to [insert email] requesting the support.

APC Member Convening useful contacts

APC Member Convening coordinating team is composed by many, many people:

APC tech support will be provided by Adolfo, Avi, Igor, k054, Maja and Rox. You can reach out to support2021[@] apc.org for any technical questions related to your access or any of the working spaces.

1 Mariana Fossatti, GenderIT editor, created the Readme format for the Second Feminist Internet Research (FIRN) Convening. We want to thank and acknowledge her for this brilliant hack of software installation practice.

2 https://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us/chatham-house-rule